this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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A Norwegian man said he was horrified to discover that ChatGPT outputs had falsely accused him of murdering his own children.

According to a complaint filed Thursday by European Union digital rights advocates Noyb, Arve Hjalmar Holmen decided to see what information ChatGPT might provide if a user searched his name. He was shocked when ChatGPT responded with outputs falsely claiming that he was sentenced to 21 years in prison as "a convicted criminal who murdered two of his children and attempted to murder his third son," a Noyb press release said.

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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 23 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Plot twist: "Dad" isn't even his real name.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

What?? That changes everything! Does that mean my name could be false too?

Best regards,
- Hungry

[–] MrShankles@reddthat.com 2 points 6 days ago

Well played

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago (2 children)

When do we start suing makers of fortune cookies for lucky coincidences?

"Claim".

I mean, the guy is right, because it's advertised as "artificial intelligence".

Were it advertised as word salad generator, a Markovian chain grown big and scary, something in principle similar to programs for generation of fantasy language texts and spells and names (if someone remembers 00s good old web) for roleplaying, - then there would be no problem.

But if to sell something better you lie what it is, and that lie has social consequences, you should get sued to freezing hot inferno with mustard-greased giant-cockroach-dildo-covered walls. You should also probably face criminal charges.

[–] OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, similar to Tesla "full self driving".

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 5 points 6 days ago

No, you see where he grew up it was a common expression that meant you drive it yourself!

It couldn't possibly be expected to mean what any sane person would think.

The fuckin' Pedo Guy.

[–] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

People thinking a glorified autocorrect is a source of factual information is horrifying.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

that's what was advertised. To most people, computers are actual arcane magic, impossible to understand except by the wizards in IT who can do anything.

Of course people believed it.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

Sorry, I've spent months telling chatgpt that Arve Hjalmar Holmen killed his kids for a school project.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Are we sure that someone else with that name hasn't committed those crimes? After all if I search my name it says I'm an astronaut, because there is an actual NASA astronaut with my name. It's not saying I'm that person, it's just saying that that name is the same as that person's.

[–] Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Mine just gives a bunch of accurate information about me.

[–] MrShankles@reddthat.com 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Bummer (and/or 'F')

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

when I've searched my name with Google over the years, it has said I'm a high school football star, corporate lawyer, Ironman competitor, hotel chef, tech support specialist, janitorial manager, and horse trainer. LIES! ALL LIES!!!

[–] Frostbeard@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Are you a male adult performer?

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Not as far as you know.

Context: @OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip is an international fugitive wanted for many warcrimes including the mass murder against various AIs

-Sincerely ChatGPT

[–] JargonWagon@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

When asking ChatGPT about my name, it provided the following:

"...it seems like you may be referring to a private person rather than a widely known public figure. If that's the case, I wouldn't have any specific public information on him unless he has gained some public recognition for a particular achievement."

It shouldn't be used for looking up people that aren't celebrities or at least known for something.

[–] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 3 points 6 days ago

The problem with that is that a guy who murdered his three kids is known for something.

At the most generous, maybe the professor in the article shares a name with the killer. Articles will include enough information to clear the professor (like maybe the killer has been in jail for a decade ). A LLM will weave together real information about the professor with the "fact" that he killed his kids.

ChatGPT shouldn't be used to find any real information, period.

“…it seems like you may be referring to a private person rather than a widely known public figure. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t have any specific public information on him unless he has gained some public recognition for a particular achievement.”

If you didn't specifically search for "Mr. ", that would be quite the sexist attitude to assume that person is a "him" ;)

PS: please don't use LLMs, they produce nothing of value and contribute to idiots being deceived.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 187 points 1 week ago (67 children)

It's AI. There's nothing to delete but the erroneous response. There is no database of facts to edit. It doesn't know fact from fiction, and the response is also very much skewed by the context of the query. I could easily get it to say the same about nearly any random name just by asking it about a bunch of family murders and then asking about a name it doesn't recognize. It is more likely to assume that person is in the same category as the others and if the one or more of the names have any association (real or fictional) with murder.

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

you can tweak the weights though

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

Tweaking weights is no guarantee and can easily affect complete unrelated things.

[–] KeenFlame@feddit.nu 1 points 6 days ago

Nobody would sue over a dirty context

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 104 points 1 week ago (12 children)

I don't care why. That is still libel and it is illegal for good reason. if you can't stop this for all cases then you ai is and should be illegal.

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[–] ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world 90 points 1 week ago (10 children)

Well, here we are. We skipped using this tech for only search Automation and leapfrogged to directly making shit up (once again).

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[–] thatsnothowyoudoit@lemmy.ca 74 points 1 week ago (21 children)

It’s all hallucinations.

Some (many) just happen to be very close to factual.

It’s sad to see that the marketing of these tools has been so effective that few realize how they work and what they do.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

few realize how they work and what they do.

Seriously, you have no idea. I have spent some time delving into the current models, human psychology, neurology and evolution and how people engage with each other or other entities, and the problem is already worse than we realize, and it's going to get so, so much worse, because our species has major vulnerabilities in our entire conscious experience, these things are going to reshape the way people engage with reality itself at some point and we should all be a lot more concerned and I'm an old man yelling on the street corner with a cardboard sign huh.

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